[159] I quote this and the following paragraphs verbatim from Garrick Mallery, "Picture Writing of the American Indians," 10th Annual Report, 1888-89, Bureau of Ethnology (Smithsonian Institute). p. 78.
[160] Op. cit., pp. 35 et seq.
[161] See de Visser, p. 41.
[162] There can be no doubt that the Chinese dragon is the descendant of the early Babylonian monster, and that the inspiration to create it probably reached Shensi during the third millennium b.c. by the route indicated in my "Incense and Libations" (Bull. John Rylands Library, vol. iv., No. 2, p. 239). Some centuries later the Indian dragon reached the Far East via Indonesia and mingled with his Babylonian cousin in Japan and China.
[163] "Religious System of China," vol. iii., chap, xii., pp. 936-1056.
[164] This paragraph is taken almost verbatim from de Visser, op. cit. pp. 59 and 60.
[165] G. E. Gerini, "Researches on Ptolemy's Geography of Eastern Asia," Asiatic Society's Monographs, No. 1, 1909, p. 146.
[166] De Visser, p. 102, and de Groot, vi., p. 1265, Plate XVIII. The reference to "a range of mountains ... as a symbol of the world" recalls the Egyptian representation of the eastern horizon as two hills between which Hathor or her son arises (see Budge, "Gods of the Egyptians," vol. ii., p. 101; and compare Griffith's "Hieroglyphs," p. 30): the same conception was adopted in Mesopotamia (see Ward, "Seal Cylinders of Western Asia," fig. 412, p. 156) and in the Mediterranean (see Evans, "Mycenæan Tree and Pillar Cult," pp. 37 et seq.). It is a remarkable fact that Sir Arthur Evans, who, upon p. 64 of his memoir, reproduces two drawings of the Egyptian "horizon" supporting the sun's disk, should have failed to recognize in it the prototype of what he calls "the horns of consecration". Even if the confusion of the "horizon" with a cow's horns was very ancient (for the horns of the Divine Cow supporting the moon made this inevitable), this rationalization should not blind us as to the real origin of the idea, which is preserved in the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Cretan and Chinese pictures (see Fig. 26, facing p. 188).
[167] De Visser, p. 103.
[168] P. 104. The Chinese triquetrum has a circle in the centre and five or eight commas.